The Buried Ark by James Bradley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The first Book of the Change, The Silent Invasion, channelled classic YA speculative fiction like the Tripods and Tomorrow series and ended with one hell of a cliffhanger. See my earlier review on Goodreads.
The Buried Ark picks up the action immediately after the end of Book 1. Callie is in the Zone and penetrates deeper into the nightmarish landscape with her less than trustworthy companion. The people that exist there are terribly altered. Author James Bradley is clearly riffing on The Invasion of The Bodysnatchers but manages to turn it into something darker, which is no mean feat.
Of course the deeper horror of the Books of the Change is that the Zone is a corollary for the climate change we see accelerating around us, and which is turning our ecosystem into something just as inhospitable. It’s a truth the young readers of these books will have to confront in the too-near future. Speculative fiction often deals with what is happening in the real world today, and Callie is the perfect avatar for the upcoming generation who – we hope – will be able to solve the problems left them by so-called adults.
Within this uncomfortable framework, the action in The Buried Ark is relentless as Callie finds unwelcome truths about the Zone’s denizens and herself before becoming embroiled in a plan to halt the Change with deadly consequences for everyone on the planet.
The ending of Book 2 is one of the most gutsy pieces of writing I’ve seen in a long time, doubling down on Book 1’s cliffhanger and then some. Where Book 3 will take us, I have no idea, but I’m buckled in and ready for the ride.
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